Early birds
An 11 am. start has become central to the tradition of the OU-Texas game.
The smell of beer and corn dogs in the morning is not so fragrant. I suppose it beats napalm, but not by much.
Ninety-two thousand football fans, plus the tens of thousands of others trying to get into Fair Park between the hours of 8 a.m. and 10 a.m., does not for smooth traffic make.
A traditional morning kickoff after a night of traditional revelry makes no sense.
And yet an 11 a.m. start has become as big a part of OU-Texas Weekend as Stemmons Freeway traffic and winning players donning the golden hat from the trophy of the same name.
It’s not a conspiracy. It’s just business. The 11 a.m. Saturday television window has become precious in the sight of television executives, and OU-Texas is a valued commodity. It stinks for
ticket-buying fans, but the Sooners and Longhorns are exactly what couch-sitting fans look for on Saturdays.
“From a ratings standpoint, you need anchors that are going to start your day off strongly,” said Lee Berke, a New York-based television consultant who has helped OU in media deals.
The 11 a.m. window no longer is where lesser matchups are shoved, waiting for the plush 2:30 p.m. and prime-time showdowns.
You can blame it partly on the SEC — CBS’ 2:30 p.m. Southeastern Conference games have been college football’s highest-rated package nine straight years. In 2017, the SEC on CBS averaged five million viewers per Saturday.
Fox and ESPN/ABC have decided not to butt heads with Alabama. Instead, they trot out marquee games early, in hope that eyeballs watching at 11 a.m. will stay all day. Or at least win the early window.
“We have heard the same thing from our television partners,” said Big 12 associate commissioner Bob Burda. “All things being equal, they’re finding better numbers in the early window. That has become their featured (day) timeslot.”
That explains the glut of 11 a.m. kickoffs in recent years for the Sooners and some of the other Big 12’s best teams. And it really explains OU-Texas.
Fox kicking off a college football Saturday with the Sooners and Longhorns, both in the top 20, gives the network the chance to take the early lead for viewers. Plus the added bonus of putting its overshadowed two-hour pregame show on the grounds of the fair, where ESPN’s GameDay will be, too.
“They’re trying to aggregate ratings points at the beginning of the day,” OU athletic director Joe Castiglione said. “And 12 o’clock Eastern is the start of when the demographic they’re after settles in and starts watching football. They feel like if they get off to a great start during the day and have some compelling games to follow, they can improve their ratings for the other games.”
That’s a relatively new concept.
OU-Texas historically has been a showcase game on the college football calendar. But only recently have the networks wanted that showcase to instigate the viewing day.
From 1950 through 1972, every OU-Texas game started at from 2 p.m. to 3:20 p.m. Then in 1973, 1978, 1980 and 1981, the game kicked off at 11:50 a.m. Those were the days when only one or two games per day were televised across the country. If OU-Texas was part of an ABC doubleheader, it had the chance for an early kickoff. Not until 1998 did a morning kickoff return.
But in recent years, the morning kickoff has become standard. Nine of the last 11 OU-Texas games have kicked off at 11 a.m.
Fans don’t like it, because it makes for an abbreviated Friday night and/or a rushed Saturday morning. Decades-long rituals have had to be changed, primarily from fans who prefer to drive down from Oklahoma on Saturday morning or like to paint Dallas crimson until the bars close Friday night. Hard to do that with an 11 a.m. kick.
But the Big 12 has signed over to the networks the rights to scheduling start times. And the universities already mandate that the game cannot be played at night, for logistic and safety concerns. That’s similar to Ohio State-Michigan, which never is played in primetime and often gets the early window, though at least that’s noon for those Eastern Time Zone teams.
“That’s not on the table,” Castiglione said of a prime-time OU-Texas. “It’s not going to be on the table, at least not for the foreseeable future.”
Joe C. is not happy with 11 a.m. kickoffs in Dallas. But he will admit that 11 a.m. kickoffs at Owen Field bother him more. Castiglione has grown weary of fighting the networks and having to explain to fans.
“For me, I’m just done with hearing the excuses,” Castiglione said. “I get it. We’ve said many times, we understand we’ll have to appear in the 11 o’clock window from time to time. Every team in the conference will have to do their fair share. We get that. We feel like in our case, it’s more than a fair share.
“Somebody might say, well, Oklahoma wants to have its cake and wants to eat it too and then they want to eat your cake. But we’re fighting for what we believe is right. I’ve said all along, Oklahoma has proven it’s a good partner in doing its share. Has always been that way. We just think we’re being asked to do a lot more. Not just a little. A lot more.”
But the networks have paid a premium price for Big 12 football. They want to maximize the viewership, in this age of declining television ratings. And the networks have determined that 11 a.m. is more high-profile than 2:30 p.m., when you factor in the mid-afternoon dominance of the SEC.
“Given the busy activities that families typically have on Saturday, a lot of those commitments are in mid-afternoon, late afternoon, the early window is more accessible to viewers,” Burda said. “Typically once they leave their house, they’re gone.”
Thus quality matchups are desired for 11 a.m. kickoffs, and OU-Texas is nothing if not a quality matchup. Get used to the napalm.
“Is it a sign of the times? Fair question,” Castiglione asked. “Don’t know if I could say how long. But it’s certainly a sign of these times.”